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1809. (^Bra^am Eincofn. 1894. 



1809. @6ra^am femcofn. 1894. 



REMARKS OF 



THOMAS L. JAMES, 



AT THE 



BANQUET OF THE EINCOEN LEAGUE 



RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY 



I^INCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

February 12th. 1894, 

IN RESPONSE TO THE SENTIMENT 

''The Day We Celebrate r 



Published By Re^uksi 



TWreS OF &.~H. DICKSON'S SONS 4 C0.,.12£«ST 430 ST., N. 






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Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Lincoln 
League : 

I approach the discussion of the topic assigned me, 
with awe ; for I am conscious of my inability to do 
justice to so great a theme. We celebrate, to-night, 
the birthday of one, who, though born in obscurity, 
cradled in poverty, and handicapped by adverse sur- 
roundings, by the rare force of character, integrity 
and genius, became the bright, consummate flower of 
our Christian civilization,— one of the grandest char- 
acters of all history ; and is, to-day, the most promi- 
nent figure (save Washington) of our national life. 
I also approach it with great diffidence, because it 
seems as though the life and character, the genius and 
the career, of this great beacon-light of all history, 
had been subjected to such constant analysis and 
careful scrutiny, and been the subject of so much in 
the way of published and spoken address, that there 
could be nothing new^ said concerning the man or his 
career. Yet, upon second thought, it has seemed to 
me that Abraham Lincoln was one of those men of 
whom the last word can never be said. 

For, those who have lived, doing great things for 
humanity, and, being dead, have left a glorious heri- 
tage to the world, are ever of fresh interest and of 
splendid inspiration to those who give thought to their 
achievements and their characters. Mr. Lincoln was 
one of these. A generation has passed since the 
countrv was bereaved by his untimely and bloody 



4 ABRAHAM IJXCOI.X. 

death; and yet there is fascination to-day in the story 
of his career, the study of his character, and the 
analysis of his qualities; and those anecdotes which 
are told, illustrating the man, have the charm of 
delightful romance, and are read with greater interest 
than the most brilliant tales of the writers of fiction. 

Mr. Lincoln looked forth upon the world, as we of 
to-day now realize, with almost Shakespeare's eyes : 
and it was, perhaps, that greater quality of his, that 
subtle capacity to fathom the human heart; to under- 
stand its weaknesses and its capacities, and so under- 
standing to be guided by them in his own direction of 
affairs, and in the discipline which made it possible for 
him in great emergencies to stand forth as a man of 
true greatness, which makes the consideration of him 
to-day as fresh, invigorating, and timely, asitwasw^hen 
those great affairs of which he was the master were 
occupying the country's eye. 

He was essentially a poet by nature, not with that 
technical facility for rythm or command of prosody, 
by which Shakespeare was able to reveal human nature 
to the world with immortal sentence; and, nevertheless, 
by those homely anecdotes, most of which were of his 
own creation, — as wide in range and as true in teach- 
ing as the Fables of .-Esop, — he illustrated the weak- 
nesses and the forces of human nature with, perhaps, 
almost as universal a reach as did Shakespeare in his 
plays. 

This greater quality of Mr. Lincoln's, — greater in 
an intellectual sense, — is now beginning to be under- 
stood. Years passed before even those nearest him 
perceived this quality; and it is probable that, as the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



years roll by, and critical study is given to the purely 
mental capacit}- of Mr. Lincoln, it will furnish as 
profound suggestion, as amazing revelation, of his all- 
comprehending nature, as does the investigation of 
the works of the great dramatists. 

Therefore, there need be no fear that, upon the 
anniversaries of Mr. Lincoln's birth, nothing can be 
said of him which has not been uttered before. There 
will always be new suggestions, new revelations, new 
understandings; for of such capacity was the quality 
of his intellect and soul. 

It was with some consciousness of this that Mr. 
Lincoln's associate upon the presidential ticket, the 
late Vice President Hamlin, journeyed in the dead of 
winter, bent with years but still of vigorous intellect, 
to New York City, that he might appear before The 
Lincoln Club on such an anniversary as this, and say 
something which had been in his heart to say, ever 
since, in his retirement in his distant home in Maine, 
he had turned to his recollections of Mr. Lincoln, in 
the peaceful contemplation of his old age. Mr. Hamlin, 
the last survivor of all those associated with Mr. Lincoln 
when he took the presidency, stood before The 
Lincoln Club, saying that he had made the long journey 
that he might impress upon them a thought which 
had come to him, and that was that the nation should 
set apart the anniversary of Lincoln's birthday, that 
it might be inspired by a study of his character, and 
that able men and plain, unlettered folk might upon 
that day give their testimony in public places, of 
Ivincoln and his service to his country. 

vScholars, profound .students, and men of critical 



6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

capacity will have abundant inspiration long after 
this and succeeding generations have passed away, 
for study into the extraordinary intellectual qualifica- 
tions of this plain man of the prairies. But a greater 
service will be done to the American people than any 
that critical scholarship can furnish, if, upon this and 
recurring anniversaries, the life and career of Mr. 
Lincoln are so presented that coming generations shall 
know what he was, what he did, and what the lessons 
of inspirations for the American people in these 
achievements are. 

Thirty-four years ago this month of February, and 
only a few days after the 51st anniversary of his birth- 
day, Mr. Lincoln stood upon the historic platform of 
Cooper Institute in New York, The cultured men of 
the metropolis had known him only through that 
unique repute, which his brief career, before the 
public eye, in the West, had furnished. Our pro- 
fessional men, our scholars, and our clergymen, had 
heard, through vague reports in the public prints, and 
through interesting sketches brought by those w^ho 
had visited the West, of a lawyer of the prairies, an 
unconventional man who had had no schooling, whose 
practice was in the rural circuit, whose companions 
were men not prominent in public affairs; but who had, 
nevertheless, met Douglas, the most impetuous, bril- 
liant, and overwhelming debater of his day, and over- 
thrown him, in a series of public addresses in those 
towns. They had also heard that this country lawyer, 
whom his friends called "Honest Abe," with patron- 
izing suggestion, had made a speech in which he had 
proclaimed, before the idol of the Republicans of the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



East, Wm. H. Seward, had done so, the issue upon 
which the "Rebellion" was created and crushed. 
Seward, in his Rochester speech, in the summer of 
'59, had declared that there was an "irrepressible con- 
flict" between slavery and freedom in this country, 
and that one or the other would be victorious: and the 
Republicans of the East seized that laconic term ' 'ir- 
repressible conflict," and made it the watch-cry of 
their organization. But, Lincoln, two months before 
Mr. Seward thus crystallized the doctrine of the 
Republican Party, had, with finer metaphor and apter 
illustration, expressed the same idea: for, in his speech 
at Chicago, in the spring of '59, he said in his ex- 
ordium, " A house divided against itself cannot stand. 
I believe this government cannot endure half slave, 
half free. I do not expect the Union dissolved, I do 
not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it 
will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, 
or all the other." 

The politicians of the West, to whom he read this 
speech before he delivered it, criticized it, begging 
him to make softer utterance of that truth; but he de- 
clared that it .was God's truth; that the time had come 
for uttering it; and that the people were ready for its 
enunciation; and, therein, two years before he became 
President, he had displayed that marvelous capacit}' 
for fathoming public sentiment and of being guided by 
it, which was his strength during his administration. 

With the repute caused by this speech in the West, 
Mr. Lincoln came to Cooper Union. A notable throng 
was gathered to hear him. The poet, Bryant, presided; 
and, in that historic second cradle of liberty, ^which 



ABRAHAM LUSTCOtN". 



Cooper Union is, — there were gathered representatives 
of culture, financial power, and the lofty character, 
which makes New York of pre-eminent influence. 
These men eyed the tall, gaunt lawyer from the 
West, with curious giance ; and, if most of them had 
spoken with the truth, they would have said that it 
was a half humorous curiosity which brought them to 
that place to hear this western lawyer ; but, when he 
had finished that masterly address, — pre-eminent in 
its ability, cool and remorseless in its logic, concil- 
iatory and tender in its suggestions, — no feeling of 
curiosity mastered that great throng ; but one of pro- 
found respect and admiration, so that the}' asked one 
another, "What manner of man is this lawyer of the 
West, who has set forth these truths as we have never 
yet heard them before?" That address disclosed one 
of the capacities of Mr. Lincoln which we understood 
better afterwards. It was the abilit}- to grasp opinion 
as it was asserting itself among the masses of the 
people, and to make such perfect presentation of it, 
as caused him to be regarded, not as a follower of 
opinion, but as the creator and leader of it. Often 
Mr. Lincoln said, "I do not lead; I only follow.'^ 
But there was the genius, such as has been given to 
few men in this world, revealed in that following, so 
that it aj>peared like leadership. 

It is this quality which those who aspire to leader- 
ship in this day and in future would do well to study. 
There are those who mistake their own obstinacy, deem- 
ing it but the conviction of the public : there are those 
who believe that, in a Republic like ours, leadership 
forces public opinion and does not follow it; and the 



ABRAHAM IJXCOI.X. 



political grave-yards are filled with buried ambitions 
and crushed hopes, because of that mistake, which Mr. 
Lincoln never made. He had extraordinary courage; 
but it was not the courage of brute obstinacy or insensi- 
bility. When, a month after his inauguration, that 
man of supreme abilit}- and splendid acquirements, 
Governor Seward, who had been chosen Secretary of 
State, laid before Mr. Lincoln a certain paper containing 
suggestions as to policy and an intimation that the 
President might commit to his Secretary the carrying 
out of that policy, Mr. Lincoln saw that the time 
had come when it must be shown to his Cabinet, that 
he could delegate no powers and responsibilities; and 
that he must command his administration. But it was 
in gentle courtesy that he took that paper from his 
vSecretary of State, placed it in his portfolio ; and, with 
wise and sad admonition, indicated that the policy 
which hs proposed he would carry out ; and, from 
that day until his death, he was the master of his 
official servants. He showed courage, when, in a time 
of great emergency, he sent for that Western lawyer 
who was not even of his political party, and asked him 
to enter the Cabinet as Secretary of War. There was 
every reason, at least of personal inclination, why Mr. 
Lincoln should have chosen almost any other com- 
petent man than Edward M. Stanton for that post. 
Stanton had been a member of Buchanan's Cabinet. 
Only a few years before, he had met Mr. Lincoln, in 
the prosecution of a law case at Cincinnati; and he, 
with humiliating oifensiveness, snubbed the country 
lawyer of Illinois. Yet this, and other considerations, 
had no more weight with Mr. Lincoln than would 



ABRAHAM WNCOI^N. 



have been the case had they not existed. He had 
the courage to call a Democrat to his Cabinet, because 
he perceived that that man possessed those unusual 
qualifications which were imperative for a successful 
conduct of the War Department, and he knew that, 
behind Mr. Stanton's failings of temperament, there 
was an absorbing love of his country and an honesty 
of character, such as few men possess. With Stanton 
he could be firm and courageous, yielding often in 
trifles, but masterful when there was need of it. Said 
Stanton to him one day: — "Mr. President, I cannot 
carry out that order. It is improper, and I don't 
believe it right." And, speaking very gently, Mr, 
Lincoln said "Well, I reckon, Mr. Secretary, that you 
will have to carry it out." "But I won't do it, Mr. 
President; it's all wrong." " I guess you will have to 
do it, Mr. Secretary," and it was done. 

In the quality of tact, Mr. Lincoln has been excelled 
l)y no man who ever held high public office in this 
country. Van Buren was tactful, but too transparently 
so to secure best results. Lincoln's tact was so subtle 
and masterful that it seldom was perceived, and never 
realized until its purpose had been accomplished. But 
it was the pre-eminent quality of fathoming public 
opinion, — which he believed, in the long run, always 
to be right, correcting itself when led into error, — and 
becoming the absolute servant of that opinion, in 
which Mr. Lincoln's claim as a public servant worthy 
of the highest honor and gratitude, rested. We see 
now that he was waiting for public opinion to become 
pre-eminent, before he indicated his policy with re- 
.spect to the slaves. He revoked Hunter's order in 



ABRAHAM IJNCOIvN. 



South Carolina and Fremont's in Missouri, proclama- 
tions which established freedom for the slaves in those 
militar}- districts ; and, though he was rebuked for 
doing so, savagely by Phillips and Garrison, and the 
influential public men who espoused innnediate eman- 
cipation, yet it was because Mr. Lincoln saw, as they 
did not, that the time was not ripe for such a benefi- 
cent act. He waited for a year ; and, when he per- 
ceiA^ed that opinion would sustain him, then he, 
seeming to lead it, issued his Emancipation Proclama- 
tion ; and, in lesser matters, he was always thus 
guided. He erred sometimes, and no one saw sooner 
than he himself ; but it was a recent minister to Great 
Britain who said " that a man who made no mistakes 
made nothing. " Statesmen have said that he was in 
error when he suggested, in the closing months of his 
first administration, that Congress could afford to ap- 
propriate money to recompense the men of the South 
for the loss of their property, if, by such appropria- 
tion the war could be brought to a close. But, in these 
latter days, we are not so sure that Mr. Lincoln's view 
had not more of wisdom in it, than did that of those 
in Congress who opposed him. 

For the first time since Abraham Lincoln led the 
Republican party to victory, more than thirty years 
ago, the Democratic party is in full control of tlie 
Executive and IvCgislative Departments of the Govern- 
ment. How has this party met the responsibility ? Its 
utter incapacity to govern the country has never before 
been so clearly shown forth as now. Never before in 
our history as a nation have our industries been so 
paralyzed, and business of all kinds been so depressed. 



12 ABRAHAM IJNCOI.N. 

Never before have honest mechanics and laboring men 
clamored for work without finding it. Never before 
in this broad country of ours have women and little 
children suffered for the necessaries of life. 

My friends, are we amiss if we feel something of 
alarm at conditions and portents which have prevailed 
during the year that has j ust passed ? Do we exagge- 
rate, when we say that fearful perils environ our Re- 
public? Are not the apprehensions, which subtle 
influences, recently revealed, create, fully justified? 
Are w^e raising unnecessary and false alarms, if we say 
to one another that, even to-day, we are beset with 
dangers, and are shadowed by storm-clouds, almost as 
momentous as those which prevailed throughout the 
country when Mr. Lincoln took the oath of office in 
March, 1861? It is true, there is no imminent peril 
of civil war ; but the thin wedge has, within the past 
ten days, been inserted into our political system, 
which, continued, may open the way for the coming 
of socialism, anarchy, and those obnoxious and abhor- 
rent forces which, after all, have always been recog- 
nized as the great menace to a republican form of 
government. One year ago this country was upon the 
high tide of prosperity. To-day, it presents a picture 
of suffering, misery, want, starvation, anguish, such 
as was not even witnessed in the time of the Civil 
War. The workingmen are overwhelmed by anxiety ; 
our merchants, our manufacturers, our financiers, 
stand, looking into the future, wdth pale faces and 
heavy hearts. We see the Finance Minister of the 
government, almost upon bended knees, pleading for 
money for his empty treasury, and pleading, because 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 13 

the inenibers of Congress of his party will not provide 
him with legislation whereby he can secure the funds 
of which he stands in need, without holding out the 
hand of the borrower. We see, in the neighboring 
vState, a man, in the name of the Democratic party, 
blackening his hand, staining his reputation, that he 
may steal a legislature. We see that man honored by 
the Chief Executive of the State, — and for that very 
act, — by appointment to the bench of the highest 
court. We see a vulgar charlatan, masquerading as a 
Christian, delivering, at his own sweet will, such ma- 
jorities as seem to him to be best, and defying the 
mandates of the Supreme Court in doing it. We see 
a Lieutenant-Governor of New York brazenly defying 
the Senate of the State, of which he is the presiding 
officer, and declaring that, though the Republicans 
are in a majority in the Senate, he holds the Chair. 
We see our Senators in Congress, who are supposed to 
represent the industries of New Jersey, both of whom 
are opposed to that "sum of all villainies," the Wil- 
son Bill, gravely announcing that, if this bill is re- 
ported to the Senate by the Committee having it in 
charge, they will vote for it. And we see that no 
hearings are to be given by the Senate Finance Com- 
mittee, to those who oppose the bill. We see, in elec- 
tion districts in New York, the district leaders reporting 
entire polls without a single opposition vote. We see 
here, in our own State of New Jersey, revolution in 
the name of Democrac}-, begun by vicious politicians, 
and encouraged by a timid and supple Governor. We 
see, in Washington, a Congress, heedless, senseless, 
sw^ayed by the most repugnant elements, and carrying 



14 AI5RAHAM IJXCOI.N. 

out the lurking resentments of others, who, beaten 
fairly in the field of battle, seek now to compel the 
wealth of the North chiefly to contribute, through the 
instrumentality of class legislation, to the support of 
the government. We see a President, manifestly lack- 
ing in what we believe to be true patriotism, repudi- 
ating the precedents of a hundred years, violating the 
laws of nations, disregarding wlint the American flag 
signifies, and violating the Constitution by command- 
ing his secret spy to order that flag to be hauled down, 
as the first step to the restoration of a lewd woman to 
a rotten throne. 

I have not ovenstated the case ; you will bear me out 
in this assertion. And so it may be well for us, to- 
night, reflecting upon these conditions, to look for 
such a one as Abraham Lincoln, — a man of the people, 
true to the people, simple, direct, unselfish, with cour- 
age, with tact, with fidelity, with loyalty in his heart 
to the bottom principles of this Democratic-Republi- 
can form of government, — to come forth ; and, by his 
example and his influence, to bring order out of con- 
fusion ; point the way from despair to prosperity ; and 
face the country about again in that direction, in 
which, obeying the laws of justice, equity, fairness 
and truth, we may be able to fulfil our destiny. 

We do not yet know who the " Moses" will be that 
will lead the Republic out of this " wdlderness" to the 
' ' promised land. ' ' It may be the leader of the Repub- 
lican hosts in the House of Representatives, that 
great man, Thomas B. Reed; or it may be that man 
who entered the army, a boy of seventeen, as a pri- 
vate, fought through the entire war of the Rebellion, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. i.S 

came out a Major; and whom his own vState has just 
re-elected Governor, on an absolutely ' ' protective ' ' 
platform, by a majority of^ 80,000 — Governor William 
McKinley ; or it may be - hi^ . who bears the name and 
possesses many of the traits which made his father, 
Abraham Lincoln, wise in counsel and supreme in the 
hour of peril — Robert T. Lincoln, 

It is given not to many men in a century, or even in 
a cycle, to have such opportunity and such capacity 
for meeting it, as was Abraham Lincoln's ; but it is 
given to all x\mericans to learn of his integrity, his 
consuming love of his country, his loyalty to its laws, 
his recognition of his obligations as a citizen, his ten- 
derness for the weak, his courage in maintaining the 
right, his faith in principles, and his respect for men 
of honor who did not agree with him on matters of 
policy ; so that American citizenship may be broad- 
ened, and there be new impulses and inspirations for 
each one to do his part in the maintenance of the 
nation, which it was Mr. Lincoln's lot to preserve freed 
from the blot of slaverv. 



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